On Tuesday 19 March, final interviews were held for one of the biggest – and currently most exposed and controversial – jobs in British cultural life: director of the British Museum. But according to several people close to the process, the trustees on the selection panel had been instructed by No 10 to do something rather peculiar.
Instead of informing the prime minister of their decision on the new director in order for it to be formally ratified, as is customary, they had instead been told to supply Rishi Sunak with two names: a small menu, in other words, from which he or his stand-ins, based on zero knowledge of the needs of the museum, would choose. This at a time when, scarred by the “inside job” theft of 1,500 items from its collection, and amid complex rumbling arguments about restitution, the last thing the British Museum needs is to be made a political pawn.
